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Redbox

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Redbox rents DVDs via self-service or interactive kiosks located across the United States in locations such as McDonald's and Albertsons, where it started — as well as other retail, pharmacy and grocery store locations across the United States.

Entertainment Merchants Association ranked the company as the fifth largest DVD rental company in the United States.

Kiosk design and operation

Redbox began in 2002 using re-branded kiosks manufactured and operated by Silicon Valley-based DVDPlay at 140 McDonald's restaurants in their Denver test market. The first DVD rental kiosks in the Washington DC area accompanied the company's unsuccessful attempt at automated convenience store kiosks. In May 2005, Redbox phased out the DVDPlay-manufactured machines and contracted Solectron — a subsidiary of Flextronics, which also manufactures the Zune, Xbox and Xbox 360 — to create and manufacture a custom kiosk design.

The company's typical self-service vending kiosk combines an interactive touch screen and sign, a robotic disk array system and web-linked electronic communications. Kiosks hold over 600 DVDs with 70-200 titles, updated weekly. DVDs can be returned the next day to any of the company's kiosks; charges accrue up to 25 days, after which the customer then owns the DVD (without the case) and pays the cumulatively price of $25.00 plus tax. Customers can also reserve DVDs online, made possible by real-time inventory updates on the company's website..

Company information

Redbox Automated Retail LLC was initially funded by McDonald's Ventures, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of McDonald’s Corp., which still owns 47 percent of the company with another 47 percent of redbox owned by Coinstar. Redbox Automated Retail operates independently from its headquarters in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, managed by a four-person board of directors — two positions appointed by Coinstar and two appointed by McDonald's Ventures.

The company passed Blockbuster Inc. in 2007 in number of U.S. locations and passed 100 million rentals in February 2008. As of April 2007, the kiosks averaged 49.1 rentals per day and US$37,457 a year in revenue. Competitors include The New Release and DVDplay.

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External links



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Last updated on Sunday July 20, 2008 at 19:43:34 PDT (GMT -0700)
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